How one atheist sees life

The Softer Side Of Mechanical Atheism

I didn’t quite get this one posted when I wanted, but these two videos popped into my world at the same moment almost. Everybody should know I’m a supporter of the work Neil deGrasse Tyson is doing and that I enjoy the way that he does it. Everyone from 5 years old to 95 years old can understand and learn from NdGT. More on that after the videos.

Naming Rights

This video is not for the mechanical atheist. Well, maybe it is. This is the feel good, nicely colored, aesthetic version of how I consider my world view. This is the emotional atheist side of my world view or at least some of it. Some of the important parts of it. The question of meaning, purpose, and peanut butter cannot be easily handled with mechanical explanations. They more often require the emotional explanation. This is a good one as far as that goes. Enjoy…

The Center Of All Things – not

No, NASA has not done anything special with peanut butter nor do I think it essential for humanity’s future. Don’t get me wrong, we shouldn’t stop eating peanut butter, not by a long shot. I just think that there are things which cannot effectively be explained with the mechanics to every audience. Those were just three of them.

I’m not sure that the mechanical atheist point of view is all that palatable for many. Well, this is the emotional atheist side of the same coin. In case anyone was wondering, I like this side too.

Oh, okay… here’s the peanut butter reference

Damn those tricky theist scientists.

On naming things. I kind of thought I had invented a term “mechanical atheism” and atheist etc. A Google search turns up an article about men long dead who appear to have used the term also. Well, na na na, I’m still going to use it as I have defined it here on this blog. It’s a short article, read it.

I don’t think that I’ve ruined the term at all though. Hmmm

Mechanism, in the sense of mechanistic philosophy as it is currently conceived, shares with its ancient roots the sense of power and ability. For according to this philosophy, the organization of the universe, including living things, is entirely explicable by the “mechanical” laws of physics and chemistry. As William Provine puts it,

the world is organized in accordance with mechanistic principles. There are no purposive principles whatever in nature. There are no gods and no designing forces that are rationally detectable. (25)

I heard NdGT’s name for the first time recently (was there some atheist related controversy involving him?) but hadn’t seen him before your videos. He has a really likeable style. Thanks for introducing me to him.

Yes, imagine this, there were ‘famous’ atheists who were upset because he would not call himself an atheist and even tried to categorize militant atheists as something undesirable… imagine someone thinking that? For being a useful person he was criticized by the people who should most appreciate him. This is why I say I speak for no other atheist and no other atheist speaks for me. There are so many that think you should believe as they do… blech